there is a very good chance he won't get accepted at a few places he otherwise would have.

Cite?

(Sorry, but a, um, good friend with a much spookier criminal record had no big problems with admissions.)

I'm not sure what you want me to cite. Do I know of people who had alcohol offenses that had some weird dings during the application process? Yep. Have I heard (and read here) of others suffering the same? Yep. Do I know of people having to go through a hearing after graduating and taking the Bar b/c of alcohol offenses? Yep.

So, as I said before, it will not prevent him from getting into law school. But with how competitive law school admissions are these days, if you think it will have no impact on his application, you're wrong.

Think of if this way: a school has 100 applications with very similar numbers. They are going to accept 25 of those. They look to eliminate applications first. Having three alcohol offenses, at least one of which is serious, is certainly not going to look good.

-I truly believe that employers at law firms do slightly consider your UG school

They don't consider it per se, but if you interview with someone who is an alum of your undergrad, it certainly cannot hurt. My first interview with the place I am going full-time was with a fellow alum of my undergrad institution. Having said that, I was a day away from committing to my undergrad for law school, too (after a couple years working). But in the end, the advantage of going to school in a major market outweighed school in the middle of nowhere.

what school did you end up going to and which one did you turn down?

I went to Indiana for my undergraduate. I ended up at Loyola Chicago for law school.

So like I said - it will not be problem if he properly addresses what happened (it probably won't be a problem anyways). Dude didn't murder anyone (and murderers get to go to law school too).

Well, you're wrong on this point, hence my posts. Three alcohol offenses (with at least one being serious) will probably mean he has a hearing for Character and Fitness when applying to the Bar. That means law schools will seriously take into account what has happened. As I said, it doesn't mean he won't get into law school, but it does mean there is a very good chance he won't get accepted at a few places he otherwise would have.

-I truly believe that employers at law firms do slightly consider your UG school

They don't consider it per se, but if you interview with someone who is an alum of your undergrad, it certainly cannot hurt. My first interview with the place I am going full-time was with a fellow alum of my undergrad institution. Having said that, I was a day away from committing to my undergrad for law school, too (after a couple years working). But in the end, the advantage of going to school in a major market outweighed school in the middle of nowhere.

It really won't be a problem for law school. A quick addendum will cover it (I was young and stupid), and they won't think too much about it.

That's not necessarily true. Three drinking-related offenses, with the severity increasing among the three, is not a good thing. It may not keep someone out of law school, but it certainly will not help an application.

Champaign is a nice Big-10 college town, anyone who argues otherwise knows nothing. As much as I'm forced as a UIowa student to troll against UI-UC, it's an awesome school with intelligent undergrads and grads and a beautiful campus.

UIUC's campus may be one of the ugliest around. Not trying to troll here, but you will find very few people who claim there is anything beautiful about Chambana. It may be a great place for some people to go, but pretty it is not.

Definitely research these types of programs. Here's a link to ours, which is supposed to be pretty top notch and well known in Chicago. The Fellows put in a LOT of time and it's very competitive to get into. But it supposedly pays off.